1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure and operation for a transceiver device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical and electronic circuitry comprise various types of electrical/electronic components that interact with each other to process signals such as time varying and/or non time varying currents or voltages. The processing of the signals involves the modification of one or more of their characteristics (e.g., signal amplitude, frequency or phase) for a particular purpose. As one or more of the characteristics of the signals change, the physical size and construction of the components needed to process the signals also change; that is, the size of the components used in processing circuitry and the arrangement of the circuitry are directly affected by the range of one or more characteristic of the signals being processed. For example, components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors of a certain size and type are typically used for signals in the High Frequency (HF; i.e., signals approximately in the 3 MHz-30 MHz frequency range) range. However, circuitry which are used to process UHF (Ultra High Frequency) signals have relatively smaller components than those used for HF signals. The physical placement of components with respect to each other, the connection of components to certain other components and the electrical interaction between the components in the UHF circuits have an even more significant effect on the operation of the circuit. Still further, signals having even higher frequency components are processed with even smaller components and often there is no distinction between the components themselves and their interconnections. At microwave frequencies, for example, even the manner in which signals propagate throughout a circuit drastically changes. In many cases, these microwave signals operate as electromagnetic waves propagating through waveguides and are no longer currents and voltages at various points in a circuit; in such microwave circuits, the concept of having distinct components each with a well defined operation becomes blurred. Various conductor structures are seen as distributed components whose operation depend more on their relative positioning with respect to other structures and components in the circuit. The microwave signals have wavelengths in the range of 1 cm to slightly longer than 1 millimeter.
Signals having wavelengths of 1 millimeter or less become extremely difficult to process using conventional circuit techniques. Signals of wavelengths of less than 1 millimeter are sometimes referred to as sub-millimeter signals. It is very difficult to process sub-millimeter signals using components developed for microwave circuitry or components typically used in lower frequency radio waves such as UHF (ultrahigh frequency) and VHF (very high frequency) signals. These sub-millimeter signals are located somewhere above the microwave frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum and slightly below the infrared portion of the spectrum (i.e., 100 GigaHertz (GHz) to 10 TeraHertz (THz)). Infrared signals are often considered to be optical signals. Because of their relatively short wavelengths and their vicinity to the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, sub-millimeter signals often have characteristics similar to or the same as optical signals. Thus, developing circuit components and circuit structures to process such signals that exhibit both electrical and optical behavior becomes extremely difficult.